Barnton Quarry is a ROTOR

ROTOR

ROTOR was a huge and elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers...

 bunker of the R4 type in Clermiston

Clermiston

Clermiston is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the north of Clerwood and west of Corstorphine Hill.Clermiston estate, built in 1954, was part of a major 1950s house-building programme to tackle overcrowding in Leith and Gorgie...

, Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. It was built in 1952 as the SOC (Sector Operations Centre) for correlating information from ROTOR radar stations throughout Scotland. The bunker comprises three underground levels and a large surface building which pre-dates the underground structure.

The site was re-designated as a RSG

Regional Seat of Government

Regional Seats of Government or RSGs were the best known aspect of Britain's Civil Defence preparations against Nuclear War. In fact, however, naming conventions changed over the years as strategies in Whitehall changed....

 (Regional Seat of Government) in the early 1960s and remained operational until the early 1980s when ownership was transferred to Lothian Regional Council. The Council sold the site in the late 1980s to a private property developer.

The underground structure was damaged by fire in the early 1990s.

External links

• Regional Seats of Government article at Subterranea Britannica discussing Barnton Quarry
• Barnton Quarry described within the Gazetteer for Scotland of the Royal Scottish Geographic Society
• Barnton Quarry in the Scots at War directory